Cathy Lamb's Blog, page 60

Inside A Writer’s Messy Mind

I thought you might like to see a glimpse of my writing process.

I wrote my next manuscript, due in December, in non – chronological order.  In other words, I wrote any scene whenever I damn well felt like it, no matter if I was writing the last scene of the book in the middle and the first scene at the end.

I also wrote people’s relationship scenes one right after the other. So, all of the scenes that my main character, Charlotte, has with her Scottsman, well, they were written straight down for twenty or thirty or more pages.

Because of this ridiculousness, I had to print the manuscript out, then cut it apart with scissors, label every scene, highlight the labels, staple the scenes together and put them in order in a messy pile. I then had to cut and paste the document on my computer so it would be a story instead of a literary catastrophe.

What’s that? You hear me screaming? Really?  Does it sound like this, ARGGGHHHH!!!

 

 

Excerpt From Henry’s Sisters

I grabbed my lighter with the red handle from the kitchen, lighter fluid, a water bottle, my lacy bra and thong, and opened the French doors to my balcony.  The wind and rain hit like a mini hurricane, my braids whipping around my cheeks.

One part of my balcony is covered, so it was still dry. I put the bra and thong in the usual corner on top of a few straggly, burned pieces of material from another forgettable night on a wooden plan and flicked the lighter on. The bra and thong smoked and blackened and wiggled and fizzled and flamed.

When they were cremated, I doused them with water from the water bottle. No sense burning down the apartment building.  That would be bad.

I settled into a metal chair in the uncovered section of my balcony, the rain sluicing off my naked body, and gazed at the sky scrapers, wondering how many of those busy, brain – fried, robotic people were staring at me.

Working in a skyscraper was another way of dying early, my younger sister, Janie, would say. “It’s like the elevators are taking you up to hell.”

Right out of college she got a job as a copywriter for a big company on the twenty ninth floor of a skyscraper in Los Angeles and lasted two months before her weasely, squirmy boss found the first chapter of her first thriller on her desk.

The murderer is a copywriter for a big company on the twenty ninth floor of a skyscraper in Los Angeles. In the opening paragraphs she graphically describes murdering her supercilious, condescending, snobby boss who makes her feel about the size of a slug and how his body ends up in a trash compactor, his legs spread like a pickled chicken, one shoe off, one red high heel squished on the other foot.

That was the murderer’s calling card.

No one reports his extended absence, including his wife, because people hate him as they would hate a gang of worms in their coffee.

Janie was fired that day, even though she protested her innocence. That afternoon she sat down and wrote the rest of the story, nonstop, for three months. When she emerged from her apartment, she’d lost twenty pounds, was pale white, and muttering. At four months she had her first book contract. When the book was published, she sent it to her ex boss and wrote, “Thanks, dickhead!  With love, Janie Bommarito,” on the inside cover.

It became a best seller.

She became a recluse because she is obsessive and compulsive and needs to indulge all her odd habits privately.

The recluse had received a flowery lemon – smelling pink letter, too. So had Cecilia, whose brain connects with mine.

The rain splattered down on me, the wind twirly whirled, and I raised the Kahlua bottle to my lips again. “I love Kahlua,” I said out loud as I watched the water river down my body, creating a little pool in the area of my crotch where my legs crossed. I flicked the rain away with my hand, watched it pool again, flicked it.

This entertained me for a while.  Off in the distance I saw a streak of lightning, bright and dangerous.

It reminded me of the time when my sisters and I ran through a lightning storm to find Henry in a tree.

I laughed, even though that night had not been funny. It had been hideous. It had started with a pole dance and ended with squishy white walls.

I laughed again, head thrown back, until I cried, my hot tears running down my face off my chin, onto my boobs, and down my stomach. They landed in the pool between my legs and I flicked the rain and tear mixture away again. The tears kept coming and I could feel the darkness, darkness so familiar to me, edging its way back in like a liquid nightmare.

I did not want to deal with the pink letter that smelled of her flowery, lemony perfume.

 

What’s On Your Bucket List?

I asked my Facebook friends: What are three things on your Bucket List? 

Mine: One, travel extensively, but not to the usual places in the world, and talk to people. Honest talk. Interesting talk. Two, spend more time on our drift boat on different rivers watching Innocent Husband tease the fish while I eat chocolate chip cookies. Three, write in a different genre, or two.

You?

Elaine Donoughe Allen I have to think on this, Cathy! lol I am pretty satisfied right now. I use to have a job and didn’t have much time for doing things I love, like reading, so now I read every chance I get, and that’s a lot!
June 27 at 3:34pm · Edited · Unlike · 2














Sherie Nash I really don’t have one…just let it all unfold…
June 27 at 3:26pm · Unlike · 3














Geneva Prince I don’t want to give myself aTime .
June 27 at 3:29pm · Unlike · 2














Joan Croxton Carder I’ll have to think on it too. Recently I read in a book “abandon perfection, welcome reflection, nurture connection
June 27 at 3:29pm · Unlike · 3














Janet Castillo 1. Go the Hawaii and swim with the dolphins. 2. Go to Alaska and see the aurora borealis – or however you spell it. 3. Win the lottery so I can retire early.
June 27 at 3:51pm · Unlike · 5














Joan Croxton Carder Good choices Janet!
June 27 at 3:51pm · Unlike · 1














Dusti Douglass 1. Eat *real* Italian food in Italy. 2. Go back to CA and put my feet in the Pacific so that I will have touched all of the waters surrounding the US. 3. See either the Mayan ruins, the pyramids in Egypt, or both.
June 27 at 4:03pm · Unlike · 4














Barb Dowdell MacKenzie Ireland to kiss the Blarney Stone (wanted to do that since I was 9), go to Boston to see a ball game, ride a horse on a beach.
June 27 at 4:04pm · Unlike · 4














Iris Harrison 1.Write my wild radio memoir. 2.Finish my paintings. 3.Travel and visit places and friends that I love and miss.
June 27 at 4:08pm · Unlike · 3














Elyse Sorkin Visit England and tour all those places that I read about in books. Drive through the country side in Italy. Eat all the carbs that I want to in Italy.
June 27 at 4:10pm · Unlike · 8














Cynthia Dix One, finish the next draft/edit on *that* novel! Two, visit Australia and my Down-Under cousins. Three, oh dear, right now Three would be attending Worldcon 2015 in Spokane.
June 27 at 4:11pm · Unlike · 3














Lauren McNeal Zorn 1.) Go to the Kentucky Derby. 2.) Go to the The Price is Right in L.A. & at least be in the studio audience if I can’t get on stage & 3.) go the Isle of Barra in Scotland because that’s the seat of the MacNeil’s & I’m a member of that clan….maiden name McNeal…different spelling but still….& I want to see the Clan castle if at all possible. )
June 27 at 4:12pm · Unlike · 4














De Hansbrough Move somewhere amazing, such as Provence. One man art shows.. Publish my book of fairy tales.
June 27 at 4:14pm · Unlike · 2














Tale Thomp Write and publish a series. Go on a vacation with no time limit of when I’m coming back… Just come home when I’m ready. Establish a boarding school for young mothers.
June 27 at 4:22pm · Unlike · 4














Jaime Pommerening 1) Adopt a golden retriever. 2) Get my own home. 3) Find a real/true friend.
June 27 at 4:24pm · Unlike · 5














Jessica Morrell Love your list. Must ponder a bit.
June 27 at 4:34pm · Unlike · 3














Gillian Dorrance Fish not sure if these are possible but am hoping….1) watch the Canada flag raise at the olympics with my daughter on the podium; i would settle for just being at the olympics if she doesn’t achieve her dreams….2) take a year off work and write, 3) learn to paint to see if i can actually channel some of the talent my other family members have
June 27 at 4:47pm · Unlike · 5














Cathy Lamb Wow. So many thoughtful responses. I may have to revise my list….I’m going to do something daring in a minute: I’m going to Zumba class with my daughter. Just to be clear: It is not on my bucket list. I look like an electrified octopus with bad rhythm in Zumba, but I’m going anyhow.
June 27 at 5:06pm · "}" data-reactid=".z.1:3:1:$comment723651294361427_723686111024612:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0:$action:0">Like · 13














Gillian Dorrance Fish zumba was my try something new project last fall. so humbling and truly embarassing but i survived and actually liked it, unless i looked in the mirror. this girl has no rhythm.
June 27 at 5:07pm · Unlike · 2














Andrea Schlegel Kershaw Adopt a dog………..inherit a cottage beach house (ok……I read too many books like that)…………I’ll revise that and stay at the beach for a summer…….and I like what Jaime said, find a true / real friend. Some have become fake and users. Tired of that.
June 27 at 5:08pm · Unlike · 3














Rose Lynn Beyke 1) Move to the country in a tiny house, go solar and become self sufficient 2) Just jump in the car and drive for a month on back roads, the best things and people are found on the side of the road 3) Visit Goblecki Tepe
June 27 at 5:09pm · Unlike · 3














Terri Johnsen Dive the great barrier reef, take a cruise with the women in my family, have another event that you said you come to if I had!
June 27 at 5:18pm · Unlike · 4














Amy Downer 1. Travel to Poland 2. Visit Stonehedge 3. Play the tambourine or cowbell on stage with a blues band.
June 27 at 5:18pm · Unlike · 2














Barb Dowdell MacKenzie OKAY! Should not have read this list–I really want to add France to see the lavender fields, and Eat my way through Italy, shop for Italian leather shoes in my size-or heck, have them made for me!
June 27 at 5:20pm · Unlike · 4














Jaime Pommerening Cathy Lamb:  your post about going to Zumba with your daughter! Hmm, maybe use the octopus and Zumba in an upcoming book?! Lol!
June 27 at 5:25pm · Edited · Unlike · 2














Joan Licker Carsten Ride on a motorcycle! Teach spinning classes at the gym! Travel with my family to Europe!
June 27 at 5:41pm · Unlike · 2














Maria Ulery 1. Move to the Beach
2. Travel – someday a cruise, travel more in Italy see France too
3. See my son become successful and way later on have a family I hear grand kids r awesome
June 27 at 5:57pm · Unlike · 2














Michelle Maxwell Lisenbee Take an entire summer off and drive cross country in an RV with my husband and kids, take an Alaskan cruise to see the aurora borealis and whales, live on acreage in the mountains and have lots of animals, (I know this is four, but…vacation somewhere tropical and swim with dolphins…I could probably keep going. There’s lots of stuff I still want to do!)
June 27 at 6:21pm · Unlike · 2














Misty Pickering-Eliopoulos Watch the final game of the World Series in a sky box when the Chicago Cubs finally win it……I think I’ll have better luck taking a ride in a hot air baloon which is also on my list
June 27 at 8:21pm · "}" data-reactid=".z.1:3:1:$comment723651294361427_723742447685645:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0:$action:0">Like



























Cathy Lamb Sheesh. After reading all of these, I’m definitely going to have to add things to my bucket list. Especially a cruise in Alaska, seeing the aurora borealis, (sp?), and, of COURSE, hangin’ with the grandkids when they come. (But not yet, kids!! Not yet! That’s not an invitation from mom! No grandkids at the moment, please.)
June 27 at 8:21pm · "}" data-reactid=".z.1:3:1:$comment723651294361427_723742557685634:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.3.$likeToggle:0:$action:0">Like · 2














Amy Yeager 1. Become a Mom. 2. Travel to Italy and London (Ireland gets crossed of this year ) 3. Write the book that I’ve been playing with for years and close friends keep encouraging snd pushing me to just do it already
June 27 at 8:48pm · Unlike · 1














Marleen Hoogendam I’m from Holland and went to Italy in May, with the citrustrees blooming and scents of rosemary everywhere, and the paintings of Botticelli and DaVinci inFlorence, oo, and the fabolous leaning tower of Pisa, good choice ladies ( and the teenagers in …See More
June 27 at 10:43pm · Unlike · 1














Jennifer Cramer-Hughes Be happy
Feel love
live without fear
June 27 at 10:52pm · Unlike · 2














Rachel Journey Marry the love of my life and have his children. Travel to Egypt and see the pyramids.
June 28 at 2:55am · Unlike ·

A Humorous Blog Roll For Authors….

The term “blog roll” is a new term for me.

Apparently it’s like the game “Telephone” we all played when we were younger where we sat knee to knee in a circle and one person whispered something to another person, then another person and at the end it came out as some crazy – ass garbled sentence.

Only with a blog roll, it’s author to author, asking each writer to answer the same set of questions, then send them on, and there is, hopefully, no crazy ass sentences at the end.

Oh, wait.  That’s what authors are known for.

Some are known for just being plain plum crazy, too.

In fact, I feel semi crazy today.  I have recently started writing another book. I am sure it will come together at one point before I become a raving hermit and move to the backwoods of Montana with a herd of cats. At this moment, I can’t see it and am wondering which cats I should take with me.

I digress.

I was asked to be a part of a blog roll by my new friend and fellow author, Lesley Kagen, who wrote, among other books, the wonderful, Whistling in the Dark.

Here’s her website. http://www.lesleykagen.com/

Thank you, Lesley!

At the end of this blog roll I’ll recommend the writer that I am handing off this Blog Roll to next…

 

1. WHAT I AM WORKING ON

Cathy Lamb: I am working on staying sane.  Yep. Summer. Kids home. Lots going on.

And I’m trying to write another novel.  Here are a few hints: It’s set in Scotland.  Men in kilts, flowing gardens, The Lochness Monster, bagpipes, cobblestone streets, all that.  My main character is … well, a bit like me.

The story is about best friends with one best friend not being honest about what is going on, and has gone on, in her life. So is the friendship still true and real?  Do the lies lessen the quality of the relationship? How do you define friendship? How important are girlfriends and best friends?

Can I eat chocolate EVERY day?

2. HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

Oh, I don’t know. I know lots of excellent fiction writers who write for women audiences, and about women, like me. On a side note, if I were to list the fiction writers who I think are better than me I would have to go hide in my closet with a nice, fuzzy pink blanket over my head and rock back and forth in a pathetic fashion. Let’s do move on here.

3. WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

I write what I do because I have a wild imagination and stories in my head.  I like writing about issues, problems, and challenges that women face. I like writing about real life, with a whole ton of humor and funny antics thrown in.  I like developing quirky characters and giving them friends and family and men that you want to hug/strangle/kick/cook with/laugh with/tie up and send to Pluto. I like giving my characters full lives and watching those lives go up in smoke and then settle down into something lovely.

4. HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

Well, currently my writing process isn’t working. I have, for the first time in my life, written the ending FIRST of this next novel. I have then worked backwards from the end.  Last night I started to fill in the middle – end.  I suppose I will write the beginning one of these days, after I cut and paste the book until I feel like I’m putting together a brain numbing and stupid puzzle.

I do write 2,000 words a day, 10,000 a week when I’m writing a first draft, which is what I’m doing now. I am up very late.  I edit every book at least eight times before it goes to my editor. I edit each book twelve times total.  Why? Because that’s how long it takes.

By the time it’s done, well, it’s done. I don’t want to read it again. Not in this lifetime and not in the next one, either.

5. AND THE OTHER PART OF THIS QUESTION, HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS NOT WORK?

Oh gee. I think I just answered this. My advice: Do not write the ending first.  Ever. It’s ridiculous. I am ridiculous.

PASSING THE TORCH of this blog roll.

Please. Read Cassie Selleck Dandridge’s The Pecan Man.  I loved it. She is a smart and depthfull  (did I just make up a word?) writer and she self published the book on Amazon, that literary daredevil. Only $4.99. Trust me on this one.

Cassie Selleck Dandridge

http://thepecanman.wordpress.com/

 

Happy reading to one and all.

PS The horses are my sister’s. I put them in this blog because I think they’re smiling.

For Writers: How NOT To Write A Novel

1. Write only the scenes that you “feel like” writing, as if you are some zen loving hippie and will do what the wind calls you to do, what the rainbow requests, what the chirping birds inspire you to write.  You will then have a giant mess, in non – chronological, senseless order, that you will have to cut and paste and cut and paste until you want to bash your head through a wall, like me.

2. Spend all your time daydreaming about other things that are pleasant and delightful and not writing your book, and then tell yourself that you were doing “research.” When your deadline is looming like a sharp toothed pterodactyl, you will be working sixteen hours a day, chugging coffee and ice cream. It’s ugly.  Avoid it.

3. Convince yourself that you should hang out with fun girlfriends instead of work so you can get more ideas for your book. Soon you will have gained ten pounds because your fun friends like to eat fun food at fun places and you go along with all this fun – ness because you are a sap who is dragging her ass instead of writing.

 

(DO REMEMBER, friends, this is an article on what writers SHOULD NOT do!)

4. Change your mind about your main character mid way through so you have to go back to the start and “fix” her.

5. Decide in the sixth edit that you are sick of one of your other characters for an inane reason and delete him or her out along with 20,000 words. Now you have to go through the whole blasted novel, yet again, and make sure not one single hint of that character is in the book, always a brain splitting job.

6. Become addicted to the New York Times. Pretty soon you’re composing letters to leaders of far off, primitive countries of the world detailing exactly what they need to do to advance into the 19th century, what are they, stupid? and you’re actively engaged in debating with YOURSELF OUT LOUD what YOU would do if you were president. It’s ridiculous. I’m ridiculous.

7. Spend an inordinate amount of time debating, with your Invisible Friends, what book you should read next, then after that, and what should be read after that? Download more books than you can ever read. Cackle crazily while you do it.

8. Write an enormous 152,000 word book, knowing you’ll have to edit that sucker twelve times, and ask yourself if you want to be sane at the end of it, or not.  If not, then go ahead and write it. If you treasure sanity, don’t do it. Become a florist. Roses are calming.

8. Write with only the vaguest and dreamiest idea of where you want to go. Your story will sound goofy and aimless. Like mine now, where I am writing what I “feel” like writing, like some (above mentioned) zen loving hippie. In fact, last night I wrote the ending. Ugh.

9. Decide that everything in your life has to be settled and done before you start writing. It is a good way to start writing by midnight EVERY SINGLE *(&%&U*(& NIGHT.

10. Take time off like I did. I took weeks off recently. Weeks. I have never taken weeks off work in my entire life and I am 47 years old and started working when I was fifteen. Usually I wait four days between finishing a novel and starting another one.  I grew up Catholic, with an “idle hands are the devil’s play things” mentality, so laziness didn’t go over well in our house. In fact it was forbidden, so work is second nature to me.

But, oh no. I had to go and take a Cathy Sabbatical. Now I know what retirement is going to feel like. I currently want to retire immediately and watch my hydrangeas and rhododendrons grow, but I can’t. Woe is poor me and my twisted imagination.

Back to work, dear friends! Cheerio! Bon chance, tra la la, adios and all that.  Good luck to you, you crazy people, I’m going to have a melt down.

Maya Angelou, Brilliant Writer, Brilliant Person

We will miss you.

 

‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard

‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

 

 

Author to Author Interview: Cassie Dandridge Selleck

Cathy Lamb:  Cassie, I just loved The Pecan Man. It was one of the most  honest, heartbreaking -yet – hopeful books I’ve read. You captured the time period, with the rampant racism and discrimination, so well. I felt like I was there, in Florida, living with Ora Lee Beckworth.

(Friends, it’s only $4.99 on Kindle and please, take it from me who reads like a fiend, it’s worth it.)

Please tell everyone here what The Pecan Man is about.

Cassie Dandridge Selleck: The Pecan Man is about a woman, Ora Lee Beckworth, who sets out to clear her conscience by clearing a man’s name. In doing so, she learns much more about herself than she thought she knew about everything and everyone else. It is also about Ora’s relationship with her maid, Blanche, and how Ora’s life changes when she starts making decisions based on love rather than tradition.

One thing I loved is how Ora, a white woman, steeped deeply in her societal traditions, changed in her feelings towards Blanche, her African American maid, and how she realized the error of her own thinking, and of her own behavior towards, Blanche. She was able to look at her past, her present, and change her future based on her new, more compassionate, intellectual, and open minded insights. She even gained a whole new family.

What do you see, Cassie, as the overriding themes?

I would say the overriding theme of The Pecan Man is redemption and restoration. Sometimes we all do things that we wish we could take back. We make choices with painful consequences, for ourselves and for others. What defines our character is what we do to atone for our sins, what sacrifices we will make, and how we go about setting things right if given the opportunity.

As Ora finally, finally did. (One more note, readers…If your book group needs a story that will provide interesting discussions, this would be it. Ora’s choices can easily be debated.)

What sparked the story?

In 2001, on the 45 minute trip from the grocery store to my home on the Suwannee River, an old black man rode his rumpled old bicycle out of the woods just in front of me. Two blocks away, another old man was picking up pecans in his front yard. I have always been intrigued by real characters in life, so these two men sort of morphed into one character I called The Pecan Man. By the time I got home, I had three characters, Ora, Blanche and Eddie and I knew only that Ora would sit down on her porch to tell, in traditional storytelling fashion, the story of why The Pecan Man died in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Like I said in my opening…heart breaking.

Your book is selling incredibly well. How has the success of the Pecan Man changed your life?

Wow, in so many ways. I have been working for others, raising children, mentoring students and volunteering since I was seventeen years old. For the first time in my life, I am completely self-sufficient and able to do whatever I want to do. The funny thing is, the first two things on my bucket list were: Get a college degree and publish a novel – in that order. The second now makes the first possible and I am working on a BFA in Creative Writing through Goddard College’s low residency program.

Good for you. I always thought a degree in Creative Writing would be so much fun to earn. Going back to school, writing, reading…I’ll have to live vicariously through you now. 

But back to the book!  The Pecan Man is about 50,000 words, correct? How long did it take you to write it?

Honestly…almost ten years. But that was off and on, while working full-time, raising children, building a house (literally and personally), suffering from undiagnosed carpal tunnel syndrome and a host of other “I’m too busy to write” excuses. I’m working on another novel now. I pray that it does not take another ten years!

It better not. You will be in big trouble with me if it does. I want to read the next one right away.

Did you self publish it? Traditionally publish? Was it published only as an E – book?

I was not in a position to devote real time to seeking a traditional publisher, so I was just sitting on this mostly finished work. I decided to publish through Amazon’s Kindle program, just as an e-book, thinking that the worst that could happen was that it didn’t sell or got widely panned and I could pull it. What’s that new insurance commercial? “Like it never even happened.” Well, that didn’t last long. Too many people were complaining that they wanted a “real” book, so I put it out in paperback as well.

I was getting tired of being asked when I was going to publish my novel, so when I read an article about a woman who successfully self-published through Amazon, I figured it was a good way to shut my family and friends up! In all seriousness, though, I felt like I had nothing to lose, but I honestly did not expect it to be as successful as it is. I can’t even tell you how many book clubs have contacted me saying, “This is the first self-published book we’ve chosen.” I am humbled and grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love for my characters from readers all over the world.

I understand you now have an agent. Why did you decide to hire an agent after such a successful debut?

Well, I wasn’t looking for an agent, but a couple of them came looking for me, and I chose one who is really excited about The Pecan Man and future work as well. There are a lot of things an agent can do, including securing foreign rights, getting a movie deal (crossing fingers), and possibly selling it to a major publisher. My jury is still out on that, but I think every author wants the legitimacy of a big publishing house. She did sell the audio rights, however, and The Pecan Man will be available as an audio recording in August. I was allowed to help choose the narrator and I have to say that I am thrilled with our selection. She absolutely brings Ora Lee to life.

What are the jobs you have had in your life? Do you have a day job now and what is it?

I’ve been working since I was 19, so the list is long: drug store clerk, bank receptionist, photo lab technician, Emergency Medical Technician, payroll/accounting clerk at what is now The Villages, Florida, Operations Controller at Merrill Lynch, Library Outreach Coordinator (my favorite), Sales and Marketing Manager for bridge access company. The Pecan Man has allowed me the financial freedom to go back to school and work as a writer.

That is just thrilling to hear.  I love being a full time writer.  Trying to work a job outside the home, raise kids, and write at night is just exhausting.  Even my bones felt tired when I did that. So much easier to be able to focus on one job only. Plus I’m a lot less cranky.

Besides writing, what are your interests and hobbies? (The photo of the carved log, above, is one of Cassie’s and her husband’s projects. They have many! The hawk is in her front yard.)

Reading, scrapbooking, mixed media art, painting, quilting and sewing, music, photography, and grandbabies! My grandbabies call me YaYa (my choice), and my son-in-law dubbed me the Yayarazzi because I am constantly chasing them around with a camera in my hand. I don’t have much time to do most of those things these days, but I still love doing them.

Ya Ya, if you were given two weeks of vacation, all expenses paid, where would you go, who would you invite to come with you, and what would you do?

Hands down…Ireland. I’d take my husband and we’d probably be typical tourists, roaming the countryside and hanging out in the pubs. In the meantime, we are working towards retirement so we can travel the U.S. in an RV.

Thank you for the interview. Let us know when your new book is out because I will be first up to buy it. The Pecan Man was a literary gift, Cassie.

 

www.thepecanman.wordpress.com

Facebook: The Pecan Man

 

20 Things I’ve Done Since Finishing My Latest Novel

1. I read a ton of books. Only one was awful. I put it down. Now it’s stuck in my head. I hate that.

2. I learned to love gardening. My late mother would be delighted. She had 23 fruit trees, a geometric patio, and a burgundy clematis that now climbs up my trellis.

3. I cleaned off a wood bird house my late father owned. He used to watch a daring squirrel trying to eat the bird seed out of it when he was resting from chemotherapy. He always laughed at the squirrel. That man knew how to appreciate the smallest things in life, even when his life was ending.

4. I spent many hours running (slowly) in the woods. I had a lot to think about.

5. I walked on the beach.  Why does the beach make me cry sometimes? I just don’t know. It’s like the waves release the emotions.

6. I loved and laughed with my kids. That’s the most important. Laughing and loving.

7. I hugged my husband more.  After 23 years, he’s still huggable.

8. I solved problems. Some big, some small. Some quite  painful, some irritating.

9. I continued to build my relationship with my cat, KC, by meowing back at her. She is strange. Or maybe it’s me.

10. I had lunch with my girlfriends. I do not hang out with groups of women, they make me nervous. But I do have really close girlfriends and one or two of them and I will go to lunch or a play together. I think God gave us girlfriends because he knew that our men would sometimes drive us out of our minds, as would life itself.

11. I had long cups of coffee. You know what I mean.

12. I threw stuff out. I can’t stand clutter. Clutter in the house, clutter in the head. My characters take up enough space in my head, ain’t no more room in there for anything else.

13. I decided that I will be a really good retired person.

14. I encouraged my sister to name her new horse Cathy and the new baby horse Marie. I don’t think she’s going to do that. Darn it.  What I have learned from the horse loving sister: A life spent giving to others – even the ‘others’ with fur and feathers – is a life worth living.

15. I skied. I ingloriously fell multiple times. I didn’t break anything.  I am a terrible skier.

16. I daydreamed.

17. I dealt with a couple of not so nice people. Surely there’s an island where not so nice people can go and live together and be not so nice together and leave the rest of us alone?

18. I decided I really do need to work on being more patient. I’ve got about ten seconds of patience. That is not good.

19. I saw a couple of Van Goghs. You can see his troubled mind so clearly in his paintings. I relate to him.

20. I scribbled in a journal. Finally an idea for a story came to me. Now I have to begin the torture of writing it.

*** What I Remember Most is out in September, 2014.

New And Glorious Quilts

I am not domesticated at all. I can’t cook, sew, embroider, nothing.  No talent. No patience. No skills in that area, despite that my mother made homemade bread that was the best ever AND homemade jam.

However, I love hand made items. Love ‘em. Especially quilts.

So, this Christmas I paid a friend of mine, Barbara Wright, to make our kids, and my husband, a quilt.  I gave her a whole bunch of favorite, old (worn out) clothes from me, my husband, our kids, our cousins, uncles and aunts, etc.  I also included clothes from my late parents.

For example…My red and black flowered robe that I bought before I even met my husband…a red and white striped apron given to me at my bridal shower 21 years ago from the wonderful and fun teachers I used to work with….my daughter’s purple and pink checked bedspread…my husband’s blue and white striped work shirt…my mother’s cloth napkins with the swirly, organic designs…my twins’ blue and white overalls from when they were babies…my daughters’ favorite jeans when they were little girls with the butterflies and roses…my mother’s beige flowered shirt…a pocket from one of my husband’s fishing vests….a pocket from one of my son’s army pants from when he was five…

Barbara cut all these clothes out and worked her magic.

One of our daughters now has a quilt with books and tea cups, as she loves tea and, like her mother, books.

Another daughter loves her guitar and music, so there are violins, guitars, and musical notes on her quilt.

My son and husband loooovve to fish, so they have fishing quilts. The fish are from my late uncle’s shirt.

 

Thought you might like to see some of the photos….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Quilts

I am not domesticated at all. I can’t cook, sew, embroider, nothing.  No talent. No patience. No skills in that area, despite that my mother made homemade bread that was the best ever AND homemade jam.

However, I love hand made items. Love ‘em. Especially quilts.

So, this Christmas I paid a friend of mine, Barbara Wright, to make our kids, and my husband, a quilt.  I gave her a whole bunch of favorite, old (worn out) clothes from me, my husband, our kids, our cousins, uncles and aunts, etc.  I also included clothes from my late parents.

For example…My red and black flowered robe that I bought before I even met my husband…a red and white striped apron given to me at my bridal shower 21 years ago from the wonderful and fun teachers I used to work with….my daughter’s purple and pink checked bedspread…my husband’s blue and white striped work shirt…my mother’s cloth napkins with the swirly, organic designs…my twins’ blue and white overalls from when they were babies…my daughters’ favorite jeans when they were little girls with the butterflies and roses…my mother’s beige flowered shirt…a pocket from one of my husband’s fishing vests….a pocket from one of my son’s army pants from when he was five…

Barbara cut all these clothes out and worked her magic.

One of our daughters now has a quilt with books and tea cups, as she loves tea and, like her mother, books.

Another daughter loves her guitar and music, so there are violins, guitars, and musical notes on her quilt.

My son and husband loooovve to fish, so they have fishing quilts. The fish are from my late uncle’s shirt.

 

Thought you might like to see some of the photos….